9/19/2010 - A tale of two journeys

Scenario #1:

The rain that had been predicted for a couple of days ago finally hit Ft. Bragg on Saturday night. When we got up Sunday morning everything outside was soaked and the rain was continuing to come down. Undaunted, we headed out to sea anyway. Although we stayed fairly dry inside our foul weather gear, the same can't be said for the inside of the boat. Every time one of us went below, the water ran off our foulies and onto the deck, the seat cushions, the bedding, whatever they came in contact with. And on a boat this small it's very hard to keep from contacting just about everything. The ride was not unpleasantly rolly or anything but the dampness made everything pretty uncomfortable. The grey skies and equally grey seas didn't really improve things any. There could have been a whole gam of Blue Whales alongside and we probably wouldn't have seen them as all we did was stay hunkered under the dodger trying (in vain, I might add) to stay somewhat dry. After one's watch and a couple of hours of sleep it was time to climb back into clammy foulies and head back on deck for another wet, drippy two or three hours. Although we had some okay sailing winds, we didn't raise the sails because we could go faster under power and we didn't want to do anything to prolong this trip. Didn't even have the camera out when we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge because I didn't want it to get wet. Naturally, by the time we reached the marina at Martinez and the trip was over, the sun came out and the weather is expected to stay nice for at least a week or so. Good thing because it'll probably take that long for everything to dry out.

Scenario #2:

Wow! Am I glad we waited to leave Fort Bragg. It was raining when we got up Sunday, prepared to depart, but the predictions said it would only last through Monday or Tuesday at the latest and then we'd be back to sunny weather. So, we discussed it and decided that, since we don't have a schedule, we might as well enjoy our trip, and that did not include a sodden passage. Since everything was ready to go, all we had to do was relax, read, do crosswords, listen to music and generally wait out the rain. We're really glad we did. The trip down the coast was beautiful. The sun was shining the whole way and it was almost warm. We even had some decent sailing winds and, since it was nice and we were in no hurry, we took advantage of them for a few hours, even though it slowed our passage time down. We saw some whales and a few acrobatic sea lions along the way. The trip under the Golden Gate Bridge was amazing and our sail across the Bay to Martinez was awesome. Having no fixed schedule really paid off this time.

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Okay, which one of these scenarios would you rather read? I would rather write the second one and I'm pretty sure that's the one that all but the most sadistic of you would choose to read as well. Who am I to bum you out with tales of a sodden journey? Who am I to depress readers who are planning to follow in our wake by relating another tale that points out the not-so-pleasant aspects of cruising? Weren't the stories about the seas off the Oregon coast bad enough? So, you see, it's not really for ourselves that we chose to stay another day or two in Ft. Bragg. No, it's for you all, our loyal readers. And we're happy to do it for you. Oh, that's all right. No, really, don't mention it.

So, we now plan to leave when the rain stops. That's predicted to be either Monday or Tuesday. Don't get us wrong, we're from Oregon so we know we won't melt out in the rain. It's strictly a comfort issue. If we don't have to get the inside of the boat all wet, we try not to. If schedules required us to get going, we'd go, rain or no rain. Fortunately, that's not the case.

Yet.